


Basement Ghosts

by Fallen_Ark_Angel



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29845188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallen_Ark_Angel/pseuds/Fallen_Ark_Angel
Summary: Mira's afraid of the basement and Laxus is afraid of moving forward in a relationship with someone who believes in ghosts. - One-shot.
Relationships: Bickslow/Lisanna Strauss, Laxus Dreyar/Mirajane Strauss
Kudos: 11





	Basement Ghosts

"There's ghosts in the basement."

Laxus considered this, as he did most things, with a stoic face and long, cold stare, the likes of which could make even the toughest of men cower. But he wasn't facing a man, in that moment, but rather what he'd considered, up until that point, his rather reasonable girlfriend of only a tentative few months. Mirajane Strauss, a staple in the guild he'd loved his entire life, was known for her flights of fancy and frequent vocal daydreams, but he knew her on another level, same as he knew the guild. The man was aware that Fairy Tail, for all it's fabled history, toiled in a lot more darkness than the average observer might realize. For the woman before him in that moment, much or the same could be stated.

She'd gone through a lot in her short few decades of life. From the loss of her parents and excommunication from her home all the way to current day, dealing with the death and revival of her younger sister, Mira hardly had a simple life. She was complex. Everyone was to a certain extent, fine, but her above all.

The past few months, as she and the guild's most fearsome dragon slayer began, for the first time in their life, to truly dig deeper into one another, begin to understand what the draw was, that had always been between then, just beneath the now exposed surface, he truly thought he was beginning to get to know her. The deeply guarded her, that no other had seen. It had felt like they were forming a bond, these past few months. Though it hadn't been long, Laxus was finding himself becoming rather attached to both the idea of the woman and learning more about her.

Then she has to go say stupid shit like that and ruin it.

"Well," Laxus began finally, tone as void as ever, "guess I should be heading out the."

"You're that terrified of ghosts?" Mirajane asked with a slight frown.

"Nope," he answered with a subtle shake of the head. "Just not interested in entertaining nonsense, is all."

"You think I'm being nonsensical?"

Mira asked this in surprise, her down turned lips turning to form something else instead as her gaze hardened. It was hardly something any woman enjoyed, the slight telltale signs of mockery in the face of unconventional lines of thought, and she hated it even more, the way her boyfriend tossed a hand up, as if in defense.

"Look, it's fine, alright?" He even shrugged. "I was just going to look at your pipes as a courtesy. You said Elfman usually does it? Call him over. But I-"

"You're being a jerk."

"How?" His tone changed then, as he as the one on the defensive. "Just because I don't wanna play into your stupid ghost claims?"

"Stupid," Mirajane repeated softly and it was a word of contention, frequently in her line of work, but Laxus didn't transition into preventative measures. Only narrowed his eyes a bit as she questioned, "Why would you say that? You know that I-

"Try again, demon," he remarked with a hardness not typically used on a woman in apparent dismay. "You've told me before about how you can turn the waterworks on and off."

She glared through her tears as, not even wiping at them, she only remarked, "It's still mean, Laxus. To call someone stupid."

"I didn't."

"You might as well have." Huffing some, the woman took to crossing her arms over her chest as she looked off.

The pair were having this argument in her kitchen, where she'd taken the man not soon after he entered the Strauss home that afternoon. It wasn't unusual in those days for the slayer to spend some of his extra time in Magnolia there, but it there had been an intended purpose for his summoning to the old house that day. Mirajane had requested he come down and look at a leaking pipe in the basement. After confirming that, no, this wasn't a euphemism, she actually wanted him to go down into the basement and look at a pipe, they found themselves having this conversation.

She'd intended it as nothing more than a simple warning. A reasoning for her own inability to head down there.

The basement ghosts.

It all felt very reasonable to the woman and, were it another she was speaking to, they'd have probably allowed her to continue on in this delusion. Not the dragon though. Oh no. He wasn't so sure yet if he was trying to spend the rest of his life with this woman, but he was surely beginning to scope the potential that they had together. Part of that included calling the woman out when she played into her trumped up role at the hall a bit too much. She delivered the same in kind, to him, when he got a bit too brooding and judgmental.

But he was expected to take her light ribbing and outright behavioral corrections while the woman, in turn, was not.

"If you don't really think there's basement ghosts," she challenged suddenly, looking back to the man suddenly, "then you go down in the basement."

"I mean, I was planning on it," Laxus told her. "To fix the pipes. Remember?"

"At night," she specified as her eyes began to narrow. "You go down into the basement, at night. And stay down there. And you'll see."

Laxus huffed some, his chest puffing as he did so, before telling the woman simply, "Fine. If that's what it'll take to prove to you-"

"It'll only take one night," Mira challenged back, "to prove it to _you_."

.

The Strauss basement was an unfinished, stuffed to the gills storage place it seemed for all of the junk Mirajane couldn't fit in the attic. There were boxes upon boxes that Laxus could only imagine were, truly, junk and now he had two reasons that he should find a way to end things with the demon.

A horder and a loon.

It was night now, as he'd agreed to only head down there after sundown, but Laxus still intended to check on the leaky pipe she'd originally told him about. Along with his toolbox though, the slayer also carried a sleeping bag and fully intended on spending a night down in the drafty basement.

Honestly, it would hardly be the worse place he'd laid his head.

Mirajane wouldn't venture down with him, instead only waving goodbye to him from the top of the stairs. This was annoying to Laxus who'd hoped she'd at least go down so he could play big, strong protector when the pipes chirping or shutters fluttering or whatever was causing her to hear noises at night appeared.

Alone though, Laxus only tossed his sleeping bag down before fishing out a flashlight and looking over the piping in one corner. It was easy enough to find where the drip was coming from and it was an easy enough fix. Just a bit loose, was all the pipe was, and after a few quickly twists of a monkey wrench, all was well.

"There," Laxus sighed some. "That- Hey! I someone down here?"

He hated to be so spooked, so soon, but he felt it then. Sensed it. A presence. Eyes on him. As he spun about though, shining his flashlight around, all he could catch were shadows from the numerous boxes.

"Laxus," Mirajane called down from the top of the stairs. "Are you okay down there?"

"Peachy," he called back as the man merely rolled his shoulders and decided he was just psyching himself out. Clearly. "Fixed your pipe too."

"Great!" Mira even clapped. "Now are you sure you're going to spend the night down there? Or are you ready to admit that the basement ghosts are real?"

"I will literally never, ever do that, Mira."

"Well," she sighed some, "I'm going to have to close you in, then. I'm tired and have work in the morning. You can come up and join me at any time- But you'll have to admit that the basement ghosts are-"

"I'm not," he reiterated for the woman, "doing that."

"Fine." And the light at the top of the stairs started to dissipate as the woman, slowly, began to close the door. "Be safe."

"Be fucking safe," he grumbled only once he was certain the door was fully closed and the woman had gone off, to start on her before bed routine. "From what? Huh?"

Laxus was a bit of a night owl, to be honest, but he didn't have much to do down in the dusty old cellar other than wait for the not coming ghosts, so he figured it was best to just begin setting up his sleeping bag. Maybe go ahead and hunker down for the night. Then he could rise around the time that the demon got up to leave for the guild each morning, even earlier maybe, just to shove in her face that no, there were absolutely no such thing as 'basement ghosts'.

He was fearful that the woman would counter with some bullshit about them just not showing themselves to him. And he wasn't quite sure how _he_ could counter that in a way that would avoid him having to spend the night down in the basement again.

Because while Laxus was willing to spend one night in the dark, dank basement to prove his devotion to his girlfriend (as well as shove in her face just how wrong she'd been), he wasn't so certain that he was willing to do it a second time.

Or a third.

Or fourth.

Part of him was worried that the demon had just trapped him down in the basement or something. Or at least that's where his mind wondered to, as he had a fitful time drifting off to sleep that night. The ground felt lumpy and his sleeping bag smelled a bit, or was it just the basement, and he kept catching weird shadows hiding behind boxes and oh gosh, what if something was down there with him? What if she was right? What if in the world of reanimated masters and magical beings, there was such things as ghost and they were going to devour him in the night?

Cannibal ghosts.

Or...would they not be cannibals now that they were no longer living beings?

Needless to say, some of these questions were answered in his dreams, others left to interpretation. Over all though, he did get a good few hours in there when he truly was asleep.

And then something awoke him.

It was a low creak, from the top of the basement stairs. The a louder creak, multiple now, from the stairs now as the old wood whined at even the lightest of pressure applied. Laxus, though somewhat dazed, immediately thought that it was his girlfriend, maybe, either coming down to check on him or realize how ridiculous this all was and bring him upstairs.

He hoped it was the second.

Or if it was the first, that he could trick her into the latter.

Rolling over, Laxus kicked out of his sleeping bag with a loud yawn, calling out as he climbed to his feet, "Come to get me, eh, demon?"

There had been a soft light, a flashlight maybe, a tiny one, that the person coming down the steps was carrying and as they raised it to shine into his eyes, blinding the wincing man, they called out themselves. Only it wasn't Mirajane.

"Laxus?"

"What the- Lisanna, get that out of my face? What are you-"

"Oh, god, are you naked?"

"No! I'm my briefs."

"You're what?"

"They're- Stop shining that light in my face!"

There was a strange moment where Laxus, now shamed for his underwear choice, took a step back, as if to shield himself, while Lisanna did lower the light, but was clearly snickering a bit as his state. The moment would have passed, as all do, and Lisanna might have made some sort of excuse as to being down there while Laxus would have only dove back under his smelly sleeping bag cover, but this opportunity was dashed as another person in the basement made themselves known.

"Oi, boss, I can take you being a total creeper, sleepin' down in my basement and all, but you're not sexually harassin' my girlfriend, are ya?" came a booming accusation from behind a pile of boxes.

"Are ya?" added a resounding echo as a soft, green glow of light also highlighted the boxes.

Laxus jumped at the sounded, whirling around while growling, "What the shit?"

It was Bickslow back there, making himself known as he stepped out from behind a fortress of forgotten junk hands on his hips, out of his typical gear, not even a visor. For all intents and purposes, it looked as if he'd been sleeping as well, honestly.

"Bickslow," Lisanna complained with a glare his way. "Why did you tell him that?"

"We were caught, Lissy," he assured the woman simply. "You don't free yourself from a trap by flailing wildly; you look to the trapper right in the eyes and challenge him."

"Challenge him?" Laxus frowned at the assertion. "And what the hell are you even doing here? In the basement? Are you… Trying to rob the Strausses? Or something? I'm...really having a hard time understanding why else you'd be-"

"Ain't obvious?" And he came closer then, Bickslow did, to find his place beside the still glaring Lisanna. "I'm bonin' one of 'em, same as you."

He took a step back again, Laxus did, blinking some. Blinking some more. Stunned. Dazed.

Very convinced this was just a strange dream stemming from his awkward sleeping situation.

Still, after a deep breath, Laxus took to nodding some, accepting the nonsensical pairing for a very brief moment before questioning, "Why were you hiding in the basement?"

"Kicked out of my apartment. Wanted to be with woman." Bickslow raised an eyebrow at his typical idol. "You?"

But Laxus didn't answer questions that didn't fall from the mouth of his demon.

"Yeah, why are you down here?"

Or her little sister.

"I," he told them both with a frown, "was sent to spend the night down here by your sister, Lisanna, because she thinks that there's ghosts down here. And I can only guess who could be causing her to think that."

Nodding, Bickslow decided, "The rats."

Laxus, frowning, rushed to bend down and snatch up his sleeping bag (this actually worked to cover his body), complaining loudly, "There's rats?"

"No!" Lisanna turned her glare on him. Then she took a pause and thought. "Well-"

"Can't a man hide out in his girlfriend's basement because he can't afford rent because he's been avoiding taking jobs because he wants to be around said girlfriend?" Bickslow shook his head as his floating babies scoffed on his behalf. "What's the world comin' too, eh?"

Laxus stood there, sleeping bag in hand, glancing back and forth between the two people in front of him before deciding, "I'm going to tell Mirajane."

"No, Laxus, don't." And Lisanna rushed to grab his arm then, the man glaring down at her as she dropped the flashlight and it rolled away from them. "Please."

"Why shouldn't I?" he questioned. "This is fucking weird, Lisanna. "This is fucking weird, Lisanna. Bickslow is fucking weird."

"Oi, boss." He'd gone to snatch the flashlight back up, but did send a sorrowful glance over his shoulder to his idol. "You wound me."

"How long has this even been going on?" Laxus went on. "Huh? Not this weird...basement stuff, but… Lisanna...are you actually dating him?"

"W-Well-"

"You need to talk to your sister."

"You don't get it." She clung tighter to his arm. "Laxus, please-"

"Please what? Don't tell my girlfriend that her little sister is meeting with a strange man in the basement to...to… This isn't my business. Or interest. So I'm going to go get Mira and-"

"She ruins things."

"What?"

Lisanna released his arm as the man wasn't moving forward then, only nodding some as he stood agape at her.

"Mira...and Elfman… They both think of me as a little kid. A lot. And I'm not. I'm only a year and a few months younger than Elfman! Not even a full three from Mira." Lisanna shook her head. "But especially now, after the whole...escaping death thing, they both treat me like a complete child. And any time I've tried dating someone, they ruin it. Not on purpose, but by being overbearing and weird."

"Your sister is overbearing or weird with or without a death," Laxus pointed out.

"Then you understand how much harder it is with a death," Lisanna insisted. "You saw how it was, Laxus, two months ago when I brought that guy home to dinner? And they scared him off?"

As someone who'd had an unfortunate invite to that shitshow, he could recall Elfman and Mirajane asking rather pointed questions and making some not so veiled threats, or at least claims to immense power that could be contorted into threats.

Laxus was sure his presence, brooding and annoyed over how slow the dinner was going, hadn't been much help at all.

When Lisanna got broke up with the next week, it was just as well for her siblings, who got to pat her on the head and dry her eyes, as well as Laxus, who was just glad he wouldn't have to sit through another dinner with that guy.

It never occurred to him that, should all the dinners continue going that way, then there would just be an endless string of bringing a guy home for the first time and, damn, he was never not going to hate those.

"In what way is Bickslow the answer to any of that?" Laxus griped to the woman then and Lisanna could only sigh.

"He's not." She glanced over at him then, watching as the seith held the flashlight out, onto a clear wall, for his babies to flutter around, casting spooky shadows in the otherwise dark basement. "But I do really like him. And he really likes me."

"And you're having him sleep in your basement because-"

"He fell behind on his rent and I was trying to be a good girlfriend and give him a place to stay."

"Lisanna." And Laxus hated to have to be the one to explain this to her. Leaning closer, he said softly, "If you've only been dating a guy for a short amount of time and he defaults on his debts, it's a sign you should cut him loose, not stow him away in your basement."

"I have ears, boss," Bickslow complained as he glanced over at the pair of them.

"Yeah? So does my precious demon who is scared to death of coming down here." Laxus remembered that, actually, he had a very good reason to be annoyed by this entire situation and it had nothing to do with protecting poor innocent, previously dead Lisanna's innocence. Because fine, maybe he scared that guy off too. Because no one should just get to date _his_ girlfriend's little sister without proving themselves worthy. "She's terrified that her house is haunted."

"I mean, it is." Bickslow went back to watching his babies gleefully fly through the light. "There's fucking ghosts down here, dude."

Lisanna shrugged some. "It's a basement. Of course there are."

"I," Laxus said simply as he hiked his sleeping bag up higher and took another step away from Lisanna, "Don't have time for this. For any of this. This...Strauss nonsense. You're all insane. In fact, I think your brother might be the sanest one among you, which is actually _killing_ me to say, you have no idea."

"Laxus, don't tell Mira," Lisanna pleaded with his back now as he headed up the stairs with a shake of his head. "Please?"

He didn't answer her.

But he also didn't go to her sister's room to break the news either.

Instead, he went to stretch out on the couch and just...process all of the information he'd just learned.

He and Bickslow would be having a huge talk about all of this.

Well, he would have a huge, one-sided yelling match at the nitwit and send his ass back out on jobs and to not neglect his duties for some woman.

Even if that woman was a Strauss.

Because he definitely understood the motivation.

That morning, he awoke to the sound of someone milling around in the kitchen, humming, and this time, it was without a doubt his demon.

Laxus was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when he found her in there, doing more than she usually would to get ready in the morning as she seemed to making him breakfast. Laxus recognized the signature, over-sized omelet she loved to serve him anywhere. In the corner of the kitchen, Lisanna was there as well. She was hunched over the coffee maker, clearly tense and nervous. For all the times that he'd spent the night at the Strauss house, Laxus had never known her to be an early riser without provocation, but he imagined there wasn't much for sleeping when you were dreading what was to come.

"Morning, dragon," Mirajane called all the same, hardly glancing over her shoulder at him. "Sleep well?"

And Lisanna stood upright then, turning to watch them, a stricken look on her face. She'd been glad, no doubt, to find Laxus snoozing on the couch that early morning, but now would be just as good a chance for him to ruin everything for her, she knew, and it was with a held breath that she watched the man come to wrap his arms tightly around his girlfriend, hugging her from behind.

"No," he remarked simply, nuzzling his head into her neck as the woman giggled. "There's ghosts in the basement."

"See!" Mira giggled as she folded the egg mixture in the pan. "I told you."

"Yeah." Laxus eyes though where on Lisanna, who he'd have to talk with as well as. Make her realize that she had to tell her sister and brother, eventually. Him keeping her secret, for now, hinged on the fact that very soon there would be nothing to keep. "Shouldda listened to you."

Lisanna bowed her head, in his direction, smiling and clearly pleased, but Laxus only went back to snuggling his demon, watching his food cook from over her shoulder.

"I bet though," Laxus told his girlfriend, "that within the next, oh, few weeks? Days? I can get someone down to the basement to exorcise any ghosts. Free you of them. If you want."

This statement caused Lisanna's joy to immediately flee, but Laxus ignored her as Mira only hummed, mulling over this idea a bit, before shaking both her head and herself free of him.

"No."

"No?" Laxus complained, watching as she moved to transfer his omelet to a waiting plate on the counter top. "What do you mean? Why not?"

"All basements have ghosts, Laxus," she told him simply. "And all ghosts have basements."

"You're not making any sense."

"I," she said as, finished with his breakfast preparations, she turned to head out of the room and no doubt get ready for the day, "own this house, so I get to decide what ghosts linger and which don't."

"Yeah, well," he complained to her back as she left the room, "this dragon lives in an apartment. So where do my ghosts linger, huh? Demon?"

He got no reply and that was fine as he only sent to slouch over at a kitchen table chair, stabbing at his food with a heavy frown.

Lisanna, seizing the moment, rushed to go to a seat across from him.

"So," she began, "you're not gonna tell Mira about-"

"Look, kid." He hardly glanced up at her. "Your boyfriend isn't going to stay in the basement, being a bum forever. I'm making sure of it. Starting today. And you need to grow some backbone about all this. Understand?"

Scoffing, she remarked simply, "Mira said that the ghosts can stay."

"Mira says a lot of things." He tossed up a free hand. "And I go along with them because I love her."

And Lisanna forgot about her own troubles for a moment, just to giggle at the usually stoic man's expense.

"You what her? Laxus?" she asked with a glint in her eyes.

"I," he assured the woman's younger sister, "love her."

"Awe."

"And if that means enabling some of her less pleasant qualities, fine." He looked at Lisanna fully then. "But no one makes my demon look stupid. And stowing away your boyfriend in the house that she owns isn't going to cut it. Understand?"

Lisanna slumped then herself, sighing as she remarked, "I just… I just want something that's mine. Not Mira and Elfman's. And I know that you think that Bickslow's a big joke and that he's your...lackey or something-"

"Bodyguard."

"You're not that famous, Laxus." Lisanna had never rightly felt the fear others did around the man. Even before her sister charmed him. "No one gives enough of a shit about you for you to need one of those."

"Hey-"

"I like him." Lisanna shook her head then. "I don't know why. But I do know that it'll all get ruined, if everyone finds out. You just don't understand."

Staring at her for a long moment, Laxus replied, "You think that I didn't feel the same way? About your sister? You chumps up at the bar ruin everything. Constantly. And yeah, they'll probably ruin you and Bickslow too. But me and your sister made it through. If you're meant to be together, you're meant to be together. And look at it this way, after you tell them, yeah, for a day or two, maybe a week, it'll be an item of interest, but then something new will blow through the hall. It always does. And if you're thinking about getting serious with Bickslow-"

"Serious?"

"Like...looking at him as marriage material and-"

And she laughed. Loudly. Genuinely. As Laxus only stared blankly, Lisanna simply shook her head.

"I'm only twenty-one, Laxus." She frowned at him. "I'm not thinking about marrying anyone I date. Ever. Gross. Ew, are you gonna marry my sister?"

"Lisanna-"

"Are you thinking about it? Does she know?"

"Knock it off."

"Big brother Laxus?"

"I'm gonna go tell her about Bickslow."

"She must be something special," Lisanna kept up, even still, as she leaned over the table just to poke the man's cheek, grinning cheekily herself. "My sister. For you to be thinking so heavily about that and all."

"She is." Laxus grabbed her finger then, tightly, as he looked the younger woman dead in the eyes. "To me. "And I won't see her taken advantage of. Do you understand me?"

Jerking her finger back, Lisanna nodded slightly as she sat back in her own seat. Softly though, she said, "Thank you. Laxus."

"Yeah." He went back to his food with a bit of a grunt. "Don't mention it."


End file.
